


Tyler Breaks His Arm

by Trn736



Category: Original Work
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 20:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10499349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trn736/pseuds/Trn736
Summary: Ten-year-old Tyler Wolfe is the newest member of Mountain View Elementary’s 4th grade class. After moving to town only a few weeks ago he is still trying to make new friends and it is proving to be difficult. Tyler gets injured during an after-school game of soccer while his parents are away.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This story is a bit different from the type I usually write. Let me know if there is interest in me continuing this.
> 
> Disclaimer: All registered trademarks and associated content are property of their intellectual owners, not me. Any real-life locations that may or may not be referenced in this work are fictionalized for the purpose of this story.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Tyler groggily felt for his phone on the nightstand beside his bed.

A few grasps at nothing later he felt it in hand and turned his head to look at the blurry image.

He moved it closer to his face to see: _6:45AM – Tuesday, April 25_.

He hit ‘Snooze’ and turned back over in his bed.

Michael and Julie Wolfe had just recently moved to Longmont with their two children, Tyler and Emma. They had been in town for only about two weeks. The peaceful mountains of Colorado were a far cry in scenery from the packed city streets of metropolitan Los Angeles and sure to be a far cry from the climate as well, eventually; it was only nearing the middle of spring but temperatures were unseasonably warm.

The initial reasoning for the move was attributed to Michael’s and Julie’s employer at a strategic consulting firm. Their firm had recently opened a new location in Denver and offered the Wolfe duo the opportunity to head it. Though the decision was easy in the realm of increased financial compensation, the decision to move their kids from the only home, friends, and schools they had ever known – near the end of the school year – was much harder. Ultimately, the decision was made.

The firm had arranged a place for them to live in neighboring Longmont. Not quite the move they were anticipating but free rent in the nice four-bedroom home more than made up for the roughly hour long commute each had to make to the city every day.

Fourteen-year-old Emma was taking the move better than her brother. Outgoing and adventurous, she was always thrilled to talk to new people and meet new friends. In the few short weeks since moving there she had already befriended most of the girls in her new 8th grade class. Supplement her extroverted personality and friend making skills with three hours of texting and talking with her friends in California every night and posting countless photos to Facebook every day, it didn’t really affect her much.

Ten-year-old Tyler was sour about the whole thing. He wanted his parents to just keep their jobs in California so they could stay in their old house and he could stay with the friends he had known since kindergarten. At the very least he didn’t understand why they couldn’t have waited for the end of the school year. It seemed pretty silly to him to pull out of a school – and perhaps more importantly his 4th grade spring soccer team – to join another with less than a quarter left in the year. Texting back and forth with his friends in California a few times a day and playing videogames with them every other evening or so was what he most looked forward to. Tyler’s introverted personality made making friends difficult enough in the new town but it was not for lack of trying, most of the boys in his new 4th grade class seemed hard to get along with and generally wanted nothing to do with him except for this one nice kid named Noah.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Tyler rolled back around and hit ‘Dismiss’ on his phone before throwing back his covers, grabbing his glasses, and sitting up in his bed.

“Kids!” Mom yelled from downstairs, “Breakfast is ready!”

“Alright! I’ll be right there!” Emma yelled from her own room.

“’Kay…,” Tyler yawned.

He carefully made his way over to his dresser, trying not to trip over anything on his messy floor – Wednesday was ‘clean-your-room day’, Tuesday was always the pinnacle of the mess in their old house and the new was no different.

Less than a minute of rummaging through drawers later he pulled out his favorite orange Nike t-shirt and a pair of shorts, deciding it was good enough for today.

After pulling on his clothes he looked at himself in his bedroom mirror.

Tyler was your average ten-year-old boy; average build and average height. Smart, well mannered, kind, and caring; he loved sports almost as much as he loved videogames.

“It’s getting cold, Tyler!” Mom yelled again.

“Coming!” He responded louder, a little more awake.

He quickly combed down his messy brown hair, straightened his glasses, and hurried downstairs.

Tyler could smell the pancakes and sausage before he entered the kitchen.

Emma was already almost done, “Mom made a special breakfast for us this morning because dad and her are going out of town for work… It’s really good but I bet yours is already cold!”

He forgot that was today.

His parents’ job required them to travel frequently. Mom had a meeting to attend in Chicago and wouldn’t be back until sometime late Wednesday morning. Dad had a meeting to attend in Phoenix and wouldn’t be back until sometime on Thursday.

Michael and Julie made these one to two day trips on a regular basis but usually scheduled so one of them could be home with the kids. It was not possible, however, for these meeting to be scheduled in any other way. It wasn’t the first time and it likely wouldn’t be the last.

Up until last year they would hire a babysitter to watch over the kids while they were gone. Recently, they began to trust Emma in the roll of babysitter for Tyler. She was pretty responsible – for a fourteen-year-old – and got along well with her brother. The both loved and cared about one another.

The few times Emma had been in charge there wasn’t much trouble. He listened to his sister… For the most part.

“Psh! It’s only been like five minutes!” Tyler dismissed.

“Well it was warmer five minutes ago, can’t deny that,” Michael smiled as he walked in, straightening his tie.

“Ha. Ha. Very funny, dad,” Tyler rolled his eyes as he sat down to eat.

“As I was saying…,” mom turned back to Emma, “Make sure he’s in bed by nine and doesn’t stay up late playing games… And make sure he gets his homework done.”

“’Make sure he gets his homework done…,’” she echoed, “Don’t think I’ll have to worry about that. Ty’s the biggest nerd I know!”

Tyler grinned.

“Like you’re one to be talking little miss always-on-the-honor-roll,” dad laughed.

“Hey!” She sounded offended.

Tyler finished his last sausage and took his plate to the sink.

“Alright, kids, it’s already twenty after seven. Go upstairs and get your teeth brushed then get back down here so you don’t miss your busses,” mom directed.

The kids did as they were told and were back downstairs a few minutes later putting their shoes on.

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning and dad will be back on Thursday,” mom handed them their backpacks. “I have dinner in the fridge for both of you, Emma just needs to heat it up.”

“Be good for your sister okay, Tyler?” Mom leaned down to him.

“I will…,” he glanced away.

“Call either of us if you need anything,” Julie turned back to Emma.

“You can beat him up if you have to,” dad put his hands on Emma’s shoulders.

“Really?” Tyler gulped.

“No. Not really,” mom laughed, “Dad’s just trying to be a comedian this morning.”

Michael smiled as he shrugged his shoulders.

Two hugs and a kiss later they were off – Emma to her middle school bus stop a few blocks away and Tyler to his elementary bus stop just down the street.

 


	2. Chapter 1

Tyler’s bus stop was the last one en route to Mountain View Elementary. Two weeks in and he’s still the only kid waiting there every morning. He keeps hoping maybe someday someone else will show up so he doesn’t have to be the only person getting on the bus here – it was always kind of awkward.

He glanced at his phone: _7:43AM_.

No such luck today.

He could see the yellow truck moving closer toward his lonely sign.

The door opened as the bus stopped in front of him.

Tyler let out a sigh as he boarded and tried to find a place to sit.

He walked by most of his twenty five or so classmates on the way to the only open seat he could see near the back of the bus – still not completely sure of all their names.

Hannah and Wendy were whispering near the front of the bus. Ryan, Kyle, and Jake were talking a few rows back. Nick, Matt, Isaac, and Andrew were all looking at their phones.

Tyler positioned himself to take the empty seat.

“Aye!” The larger kid pushed Tyler back as he was trying to get in between the seats, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Uh…,” he was caught off guard, “Trying to sit down by you?”

“You better stop trying to be smart unless you want a problem,” the larger boy snapped.

“I wasn’t trying to be smart, I’m just trying to sit down!” Tyler stammered, almost losing his balance as the bus began to move.

“Find somewhere else to sit, new kid.”

“Tyler!” A somewhat familiar voice called out from a few rows back at the very end of the bus, “You can sit by me,” Noah waved him over to the empty seat beside himself.

“Thanks…,” Tyler moved into the spot.

“Don’t worry about him,” Noah glanced at the larger boy, “Dan is mean to everyone.”

Tyler nodded his head and kept quiet for the rest of the short ride.

This was one of the only things he liked so far: being stuck on the bus for only about ten minutes instead of the half hour plus ride he was used to at home – though he would admit the ride never felt too long messing around with friends.

Mountain View Elementary was barely a third of his old school in both size and population. It was odd to see only a handful of busses drive up in the morning and afternoon instead of the seemingly endless fleet that serviced the other.

Tyler was the last person off the bus – only fitting for the last person on, he supposed.

He grabbed his morning books from his locker and made his way down the hall to Mr. Miller’s fourth grade classroom.

Mr. Miller was… Interesting… He wasn’t the worst teacher Tyler ever had, he just seemed a little out there.

He took his seat at the desk he’d been assigned in the front row on the far side of the room by the window directly in front of the teacher’s desk. Kyle had the desk behind him and Ryan had the desk to his right.

Morning lessons went by fairly quickly, the lunch bell rang before he knew it.

“Alright, class, we’ll pick up with math after lunch and PE,” Miller dismissed.

Lunches here were about the same – nothing special.

Tyler made his way through the lunch line and tried to find a place to sit – again.

The table where most of the boys in his class usually sat had already rejected him once on his first day of school there and he really didn’t want to go and try to sit at the girls’ table – not that they would have allowed him to anyway.

He sat down at an empty table he’d been frequenting.

Even though he was hungry, Tyler really didn’t want to eat much – he’d made that mistake a few times already. Having PE right after lunch was dumb, doing all that running and exercising right after eating made him want to barf. He knew better by now.

It was definitely a good decision today.

Less than forty minutes later the boys were running laps around the gym.

A whistle sounded.

“That’s enough for today,” the coach waved them in, dumping a sack of rubber balls on the gym floor. “We’ll spend the last half of class playing dodgeball.”

The kids cheered in unison.

The coach quickly assigned the boys teams.

“Aww… Does the new kid have to be on our team?” Isaac bemoaned.

Tyler walked over to his team’s side of the gym, trying to ignore him.

“Ha!” Dan mocked.

Tyler’s team lost the first round.

“I blame the new kid,” Andrew snapped, picking up a ball and chucking it Tyler’s head.

He turned at just the right time to get hit in the face, hard.

The blow knocked his glasses off and staggered him back.

The gym erupted in laughter.

“Davis!” The coach yelled, “Sideline now! You’re out for the rest of the game!”

Andrew shrugged and walked over the wall.

Tyler could feel warm liquid rushing down his nose.

He put his hands up to face to try and stop it but wasn’t fast enough, blood splattered on his gym shirt and covered his hands.

“Are you okay, Wolfe?” Coach walked over to him and handed him back his glasses.

“Yeah…,” Tyler responded slowly, still a bit dazed.

“Go to the locker room and get yourself cleaned up,” he instructed, “Then go see the nurse… It looks like he got you pretty good.”

Tyler hurried out of the gym and back to the locker room, trying not to leave a blood trail to follow.

He managed to get the bleeding stopped within a few minutes and changed back into his school clothes.

Going to see the nurse really wasn’t necessary, he decided – it wasn’t that bad.

He did, however, need to clean himself up better before heading back to Miller’s class.

Knowing the other kids would soon be headed back into the locker room, Tyler chose the bathroom down the hall.

He sat his glasses down on another sink and turned on the faucet, rinsing the dried blood off his hands and face with warm water and swishing the metallic taste out of his mouth before looking in the mirror; he didn’t have a black eye or anything – that was good – just a red mark on his face that would probably go away in a few hours.

The bell rang.

Tyler glanced over at his glasses, almost afraid to look closer. He got in big trouble every time they broke.

After inspection, to his relief, they were fine – just a little bent.

He straightened them on his face and headed to class, getting back just before he’d be late.

There was some snickering as he walked past the mostly-seated class to his desk.

It was nearing the end of the day when Tyler overheard Ryan and Kyle talking.

“Are you down to stay late again tonight after soccer practice and play a little extra like we did yesterday?” Ryan whispered.

“I think I could stay for a while but I already asked the other guys and it sounds like Andrew has to go right after practice today…,” Kyle whispered back.

“Dang…,” Ryan turned back around.

It had been around a month since Tyler had last kicked a ball around with anyone other than himself.

He really wanted to join the school’s soccer team but was told it was too late in the year to get signed up and in.

He figured it would probably be pointless to ask if he could join in after practice but it was worth a shot, he just wanted to play.

A few minutes later the final bell rang for the day.

“Don’t forget to do your math homework and that there is a science quiz in the morning!” Mr. Miller announced as the class filed out of the room.

Tyler grabbed his backpack and went across the street to the field.

He took a seat on the grass as most his male classmates exited the school in their soccer uniforms.

The team drilled and exercised for about an hour before the whistle signaling the end of practice sounded.

Tyler approached the group as they were gathering their things to leave.

“Hi, Tyler!” Noah greeted.

The other boys turned to him.

“Hey… I overheard you talking to Kyle earlier in class and it sounded like you need an extra person to play a game,” he looked at Ryan.

“Oh, no. No. No. Noo,” Dan lamented.

“Yeah, we’re one short today,” Ryan admitted.

“So… Can I play with you guys?” Tyler asked.

“You don’t have any guards on,” Kyle tapped Tyler’s shin with his foot.

“I’ll be fine,” Tyler insisted.

“You can’t be on our team, it’s full,” Dan motioned to his three other teammates: Kyle, Ryan, and Jake.

“He can be on our team!” Noah offered.

“It’s up to you guys,” Ryan nodded at his other classmates.

“Im cool with that!” Nick exclaimed.

“Whatever,” Matt agreed.

“Alright then,” Ryan grabbed a ball, “Dan and Matt are the goalies, everyone else in the field. First team to score five points wins.”

The match was hard fought and fair. Both teams raced from one end of the field to the other end of the field time and time again always answering the other’s point.

Everyone was grass-stained and sweaty after what had to be thirty minutes of near-continuous running.

Tyler kicked the game-tying point past Dan.

“Dang…,” Ryan wiped his forehead, “You’re pretty good.”

“Thanks…,” Tyler panted.

“Four-four,” Kyle relayed, glancing up at the setting sun.

“Alright…,” Dan readied the ball, “Game point!”

The match was a toss-up throughout various possessions until Tyler got control of the ball and broke past Dan’s defenders.

With nothing but open field between him and victory, he lined up his shot.

Dan could see Ryan coming up fast behind him.

“You suck!” Dan yelled.

The sudden noise distracted Tyler just enough to not notice Ryan’s slide tackle from his left side.

He tripped over Ryan’s feet and instinctually extended his right arm to brace his fall.

His quick forward momentum was stopped suddenly as he drove his right palm and arm into the ground.

Upon impact, sharp pains immediately shot through his wrist and all the way up his arm.

“Gah! Tyler yelped, rolling over onto his side.

Ryan took off in the other direction with ball.

“Hey!” Matt yelled from goal on the other side of the field, “That was a foul! He gets a free shot!”

His wrist was throbbing in pain but not nearly as bad as the excruciating pain in his upper forearm.

“Alright…,” Ryan sighed, bringing the ball back to the boy who was still down on the field.

Tyler slowly sat up, yelping again in pain as he tried to move his wrist and his arm closer to his chest.

He wasn’t sure what just happened but the only thing he was concentrated on was trying not to break down bawling, even though it hurt really bad. He figured that if he started crying in front of them they would all think he was a pansy and hate him forever. He was trying to be tough.

“You okay, dude?” Ryan knelt beside the boy.

“Yeah…,” Tyler inhaled sharply, feeling tears well in his eyes “Jus...Just knocked the wind out of me…,” he lied, looking away.

“Is he taking that penalty shot or not?” Dan yelled.

“Give him a minute!” Ryan shot back. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He could tell the boy was in pain.

Tyler just wanted to go home.

“I… I need to go…,” he pushed himself to his feet with the left hand, trying hard not to move his arm or wrist and make it hurt any more than it already did.

“Huh? But the game isn’t over. You still have a penalty shot to miss,” Kyle teased, now within earshot.

Ryan and Kyle looked at each other, puzzled.

“G-Gonna be late…,” Tyler whimpered as he made his way to the side of the field and slung his backpack over his left shoulder.

He headed home cradling his arm with tears streaming down his face.


End file.
